Don't have an account?

Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Skywatch: Special night in the Berkshires, and new probes near Mars

Mars Spacecraft

Technicians work on NASA's next Mars-bound spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) at the Kennedy Space Center, Friday, Sept. 27, 2013, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The MAVEN spacecraft, which was launched in late 2013, is designed specifically to orbit Mars and make science measurements. (AP file photo)

After all my years of skywatching, it's still easy to be amazed by the summer Milky Way. Last week, my hiking friends and I took our weekly foray into the nearby hills on a clear, dry night. This time we walked the woods of Goshen.

There was no moon as we sat for a break on some rotting logs at the edge of a bog. At least here, around 1600 feet above sea level, there were no bugs. (Springfield is about 90 feet.) Resting comfortably, we let our eyes adapt, and were rewarded with several shooting stars in just a few minutes. This was pretty good for mid-evening.

Above and behind us, the forest canopy blocked views of the rest of the sky, although a small portion of the Milky Way peeked over the edge. Fellow hiker Steve Zucchino wondered whether some of that was actually high clouds moving in. I concurred. It was in the direction of the Pioneer Valley, and could be thin clouds made more apparent due to underlighting from there.

It was down on the outskirts of the Valley and its glow a few nights earlier, that my wife Clara and I spotted half a dozen meteors during a walk. The sky was clear then too, but not as dark as here. The meteors we saw seemed quick, short, and not very bright. Yet even down there, the Milky Way was -- thanks to some transparent air -- wonderfully obvious, stretching high above from roughly north-northeast to south-southwest. The addition of several satellites and the International Space Station made it a pleasantly eventful walk.

Back in Goshen, we made our way to a larger clearing a bit further up the ridge and saw that there were no clouds where we thought; it was all Milky Way. I wonder how many people these days ever see that band of light -- our own Galaxy seen edge-on from within -- looking bright enough to briefly mistake some part of it for clouds in Earth's atmosphere.

Of course, the Milky Way is made of clouds… clouds of stars. Millions upon millions, so far away that they blend together into this wispy glow. This view is on a scale incomprehensible to our tiny minds.

Also high overhead, the three stars marking the corners of the large Summer Triangle star pattern -- which typically appear quite different in brightness -- all stood out dramatically against the Milky Way. What a privilege to have these Berkshires at our doorstep.

As it does each month, moonlight is now making the Milky Way harder to see, but to the southwest, Mars and Saturn are still easy to spot above the horizon like twins of slightly different color -- provided nothing is in the way.

Mars, to the lower left of Saturn, is getting increased attention as two new spacecraft near it for orbital insertion later this month. Shining to Mars' left, and looking very similar, is Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius.

Although Mars can get much brighter, it is currently just a salmon dot low in the evening sky. This helps make it easy to forget that we have five robotic emissaries functioning at that world right now; two rovers on the ground and three satellites in orbit. They all have moving parts, and electricity flowing through their circuits, and all are in touch with us down here.

The rovers are both NASA's: Curiosity, which made that amazing sky-crane landing two years ago, and Opportunity, which stunningly, is well into its tenth year on the planet. Two of the satellites are also NASA's: The 2001 Mars Odyssey -- now approaching its thirteenth year at Mars, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -- half way through its eighth year. The European Space Agency's Mars Express, there for more than 10-1/2 years, makes it three.

After NASA's MAVEN and India's MOM arrive on September 22 and 24 respectively, there will be an unprecedented seven unmanned craft at the Red Planet at once. That I struggle to wrap my head around.

MAVEN is the acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution", and MOM stands for Mars Orbiter Mission. The Indian Space Research Organization will be the fourth space agency (after NASA, the Soviet Space Agency, and the European Space Agency) to reach Mars.

Commenting about the new missions to my friends, Steve asked sarcastically if they were going to land. "No" I said, playing along. "Then they don't count!" he shot back, mocking the likely response from a large segment of society. It's actually almost understandable, given that Mars is the most-visited planet outside the Earth, despite the failure of about half the 40-plus missions sent since the 1960's.

Serendipity, as it happens, will intervene on the new probes' behalf: On October 19, less than a month after they arrive, comet Siding Spring will make an historically close pass to Mars -- about 1/3 of the distance between Earth and the Moon… a close shave by any measure.

And all our Martian robots, including MAVEN and MOM, will be watching. So will the Hubble and other telescopes in Earth orbit, and countless amateurs here on the ground.

Comets have tenuous gaseous halos -- atmospheres of water vapor, dust, and more -- extending tens of thousands of miles from the nucleus, and this comet's could interact with Mars' atmosphere.

There is a slight risk of damage to the orbiters from fast-moving debris, so they will be maneuvered to the opposite side of Mars during the dustiest part of the encounter. The rovers should be shielded from significant harm by the Martian atmosphere.

What our machines see could be interesting. MAVEN doesn't have a camera, but does carry a suite of scientific instruments that almost seem designed for this specific event, even though we had no knowledge of it.

Intended to look for clues about Mars' once abundant water and carbon dioxide atmosphere, and examine how Mars' ionosphere responds to the solar wind, Maven's presence during the comet encounter is fortuitous, to say the least. The MOM's color camera, thermal imaging system, and other instruments are welcomed additions.

The comet's pass could have effects similar in many ways to the solar wind. Some part of the comet's coma -- the tenuous bubble of gas and dust extending surrounding its solid nucleus -- may "collide" with Mars' outer atmosphere. It will be an event unlike any in history, with largely unknown effects. Some scientists think auroras could flare up around magnetic regions.

Speak of comets, Europe's Rosetta probe flew by Mars in 2007 for a gravity assist on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (say that fast three times) where it is now orbiting with plans to land in November.

Meanwhile, our sun just peaked in June for possibly the weakest solar maximum in 100 years of recorded solar cycles. Because geomagnetic storms tend to occur after maximums, such as we are now entering, there is a slight chance an aurora or two could become visible from southern New England.

The waxing moon will brighten evening skies for the first third of September or so, but after that later rising times will leave more of each evening dark for deep-sky viewing.

Find rise and set times for the sun and moon, and follow ever-changing celestial highlights in the Skywatch section of the Weather Almanac in the Daily Republican and Sunday Republican.

Patrick Rowan has written Skywatch for The Republican since 1987 and has been a Weather Almanac contributor since the mid 1990s. A native of Long Island, Rowan graduated from Northampton High School, studied astronomy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the ’70s and was a research assistant for the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. From 1981 to 1994, Rowan worked at the Springfield Science Museum’s Seymour Planetarium, most of that time as planetarium manager. Rowan lives in the Florence section of Northampton with his wife, Clara, and cat, Luna.